Guava Swirl Cheesecake Bars

When my next door neighbors moved last year they gave us a whole bunch of food that they didn't want to take with them, and that included a jar of guava butter from Hawaii. Having lived in the Midwest US my entire life, I don't really have a good idea of what guava tastes like or should taste like, or what tastes good with it. I took a look in The Flavor Bible and it listed cream cheese as a particularly good flavor pairing, so I got the idea to swirl it into cheesecake. As it turns out I had a box of graham cracker crumbs too, so that made this pan of bars come together extra quickly.

I gave half to a friend that likes sweet fruity things as a birthday present. :)

This is a variation on the Nutella Swirl Cheesecake Bars from Sally's Baking Addiction. All I did differently was to swap out the Nutella for an equal amount of guava butter. I was surprised to find that the guava butter changes colors depending on the temperature! It turned from a dull pink when it was cold to the pretty bright red in the picture after coming out of the oven! It turned back to the dull pink after putting them in the fridge.

Verdict: The original recipe is solid and delicious, and I think it took well to replacing the chocolate part with jam/fruit butter. I think I would add more guava butter next time because I could barely taste it, but the swirls seemed to stay on top so maybe I didn't swirl it downward enough.

RECIPE: Nutella Swirl Cheesecake Bars